Artist's Statement For Rugs For Titanica

Just getting rugs ready to be sent off to be juried for the NSDCC show Titanica...keeping my fingers crossed that they will be accepted.

Crying Fish

 I went to a talk at the Colchester Historical Museum in Truro this winter titled “Nova Scotia and the Titanic”.  The speaker, Dan Conlin, mentioned that Halifax-based cable ships were sent off to look for survivors and collect the victims from the sinking of the Titanic. He described the scene that the rescuers witnessed and it was of seeing hundreds of victims in life jackets across the waters. All I could think of was bright yellow dots on the dark waters and it made me want to cry..and so surly the fish must have cried as well.


First Class Women and Children First

 In the Maritime Museum in Halifax, they have in their collection a little pair of leather shoes from the “Unknown Child”, a victim of the Titanic. It was later discovered that this boy was Sidney Leslie Goodwin, a 19 month old from England. The clothes from victims were suppose to be destroyed, but Clarence Northover, a police officer, didn’t have the heart to throw them out and kept them safe for years.

 I first stumbled upon the image of these shoes while doing research for a show. I guess what struck me right away was, this child needs his shoes back. So that is why, in the piece, balloons are attached to the shoes to bring them up to Sidney.

 This piece is titled “First Class Women and Children” as Sidney had the misfortune of being in third class, where only 31 % of the children survived...so it wasn’t Women and Children First at all.